Meaning & use
green-fingered
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivenot comparableBritishinformal
Good at growing plants and keeping a garden healthy.
Grammar: Used after linking verbs like be, seem, or become: He is green-fingered.
Patterns
- be green-fingered
- a green-fingered gardener
My grandmother is green-fingered and her windowsill is full of orchids.
He's not very green-fingered, so he buys plants that need almost no care.
A green-fingered neighbor helped us rescue the dying rose bush.
Common combinations
- be green-fingered
- Both my parents are green-fingered and grow most of our vegetables.
- a green-fingered friend
- I asked a green-fingered friend to look at my yellowing lemon tree.
- not at all green-fingered
- I'm not at all green-fingered, but I can keep a cactus alive.
Synonyms and how they differ
- green-thumbed
- The American equivalent; use it in US texts, and green-fingered in British ones.
- horticultural
- Much more formal and about the subject of gardening, not about a person's natural skill.
Word family
- green fingers noun
- The British noun phrase behind the adjective: a natural talent for growing plants.
- green thumb noun
- The American noun phrase with the same meaning.
Commonly confused: green-fingered or green fingers?
green-fingered vs green fingers
The noun phrase, not the adjective: you have green fingers, but you are green-fingered.
Practice
Which sentence uses the adjective correctly?
Choose one answer.
As an adjective it follows a linking verb such as be: 'She is green-fingered.' Option 0 and 2 treat it as a verb, which it never is, and option 3 needs a comparative form, but this adjective has none.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “green-fingered”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.